Infogrames: Were back in business

Atari parent Infogrames has told MCV it is to double the number of games in development and build up a 30 strong network of partner studios as it looks to recover from a difficult few years.

The group received a €150 million financial boost last week courtesy of BlueBay Asset Management. It is hoped a more aggressive publishing drive on more platforms will help secure its position alongside the forefront of the global market, putting to rest the financial troubles that have dogged both publishing brand Atari and umbrella firm Infogrames in recent years.

[Infogrames has] plans to greatly reinforce its publishing business this year,” Mathias Hautefort, executive vice president of publishing and production at Atari told MCV. We are expecting to double the number of Group products between 2007 and 2008. We will be offering more than 15 group projects on next-generation platforms. The Group is planning to harness the market's metamorphosis, that is to say new platforms and new gamer categories.”

As well as launching a revamped push into more traditional, hardcore genres, casual games will also receive a greater focus – and the Group intends to expand its affiliate development community to accommodate this growth.

The Group will spend the coming few months developing – and indeed focusing on – mainstream, gamer friendly and fun titles, as well as groundbreaking and trendsetting concepts,” added Hautefort. We will be offering several mass market licences for DS and Wii platforms and, in certain cases, casual online versions.

We are building a network of partner studios to establish lasting ties that will boost our initiatives. We are looking to work with more than 30 studios in 2008.”